From Colleen Houck, New York Times bestselling author of The Tiger’s Curse, comes Recreated, the second book in the epic Egyptian-inspired Reawakened series, in which a seventeen-year-old must literally go to hell to save the love of her life.

Lily Young thought traveling across the globe with a reawakened sun prince was a grand adventure. Now she’s about to embark on the journey of a lifetime.

When Amon and Lily part tragically, he transports himself to the Netherworld—what mortals call hell. Tormented by the loss of his one true love, he’d rather suffer in agony during Lily’s mortal years than fulfill his duty to protect humanity.

Heartbroken, Lily seeks refuge on her grandmother’s farm. Yet she can feel Amon’s pain, and she has been having dreams—dreams of Amon continually suffering.

For before he departed, Amon gave Lily something very special, an item that connects them even though they are worlds apart. Now Lily must use this object to free him, and to free their realms from darkness and utter chaos. She will do whatever it takes.

If you knew the end of the journey would have a great reward, but it would be difficult along the way, would you embark on that adventure?

It’s an easy decisions for Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, but for the rest of you out there, the risk probably doesn’t outweigh the reward.

Lily in Recreated is definitely a Gryffindor, she shows her courage time and time again and isn’t afraid to thrust every part of her human self into saving her love Amon. But over time, her affections for him changes and she starts finding herself attracted to other men! By the end of the book, I felt really let down by everything that she had been through, and the end result. Not only because of where her heart lay, but also because of the ambiguous, open ending that was incredibly dissatisfying.

My life was beautiful, marvelous, unanticipated, unscripted madness. It’s one of the things that attracted me to Amon. There was a loveliness of the unexpected, and the more I was a part of it, the more I craved it.

There were some parts that kept me reading, such as the Egyptian mythology with many more gods, goddesses and creatures being covered here, and the journey into the afterlife. The descriptions of the Netherworld and beyond were magical and vivid, with a great reimagining of Egyptian lore. It was fascinating putting together what I knew about Egyptian mythology and seeing them come to life in the world of Recreated.

I also enjoyed Lily’s merging with the lioness Tia, when they share the same body but were of two minds. Sometimes Lily would have control and other times Tia, and the narration was rather unreliable it wouldn’t outline who was in charge. Tia was a feisty lioness who made them more assertive and powerful as a whole. Lily becomes more bearable in this installment, less spoiled and entitled and more courageous and compassionate. However, she did act quite disloyal towards Amon and I found she didn’t act/speak like a believable teenager at times.

As a result, their behaviour would be rather questionable at times, especially when it came to other men. This is the part of the novel which I had contention with.

To me it sounded much like a lovesick bullfrog in mating season, croaking in an ever-increasing flamboyant manner to capture the attention of his intended female.

So Lily has Amon’s heart scarab, which makes her completely irresistible to all immortals, including creatures and gods (why this never really applied to goddesses kind of beats me). This kind of makes her all mighty and powerful, being able to draw them towards her but also made it incredibly cheesy when all the men would find her completely alluring and delectable.

I raised my eyebrow at the cheesy god Horus, who despite being surrounded by the elite beauty of the Egyptian world, would swoon over Lily and stalk her. He would put his hands all over her, bend her over backwards and passionately kiss her – even walk in on her bathing so he could take advantage of her! That behaviour almost had me putting the book down in disgust, especially due to the fact that Lily would hardly discourage him.

I was glad to see the back of Horus – but for almost every male she encounters, she would find herself “becoming closely aware of their bodies being close to each other”, “basking in the warmth of their broad shoulders” or finding their faces “inches close to hers”. This happens to not one, but four males in the story which was incredibly frustrating. While it could be explained that Tia’s influence could be behind this, even Lily herself begins questioning her love for Amon, and by the end of the book, I’m left wondering about the fate of their romance.

While I enjoyed the Egyptian mythology and the re-imaginings of the Egyptian netherworld and the gods and goddesses, Lily’s character still annoyed me with her resulting indecisiveness over Amon. I found her behaviour disloyal to him, especially when she started kissing other men (or when they started kissing her, and she would let them) and when she’d get emotionally attached for them. This isn’t a love story that I was happy with, which resulted in my feelings for the book.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Thanks to Delacorte Press and Colleen Houck for sending me a review copy of the book!

Jeann is an Aussie blogger, gamer, reader who loves to read, write, fangirl, geek out and eat food. You can find me glued to one of my many mobile devices 24/7, or fangirling over the latest YA book, TV show, movie or game. Chat with me on Twitter @happyindulgence

Geez, I'm not too sure I want to pick this one up… which is sad, because I rather did enjoy the first book. The mc sounds really grating in this one, and I'm so over Egyptian gods at this point. 😛 Glad to hear your thoughts Jeann. Will you checking out the last book for this one?

Ugh, sadly it sounds like the series is getting any better. I remember the issues you had when you read book one in the series and didn't particularly like it. Horus sounds like a pig to be honest but it's the special snowflake persona that Lily seems to have. Four males is a bit too much variety. It sounds like the romance is a bit too overwhelming. Do you think you'll read book three just to finish off the series? I must admit, I'm curious now but only if the book was cheap on Amazon to download. Sorry this let you down Jeann, but wonderful review nonetheless <3
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Yeah, the stuff with Horus definitely made me feel uncomfortable and Lily couldn\’t be more specialler (I don\’t care that that isn\’t a word). I don\’t really think I\’ll finish book 3 tbh. Thank you Kelly!

Ahh, it's a shame this fell short! I haven't read the first book in the series but I love Egyptian mythology and I so wish there was more of it. I think the first book is on my TBR so I'll probably still end up reading it at some point, haha. Great review, Jeann!

Hahahha to be honest I am not surprised at all with your review Jeann! I'm basically going to be reading this only for the Egyptian mythology. And that's….mainly it. Oh well!
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I haven't read the first book, but have read some good reviews. I'll have to borrow it from the library to see if It's something I'd like. Her other series looks interesting as well. Sorry this sequel didn't work for you.
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Yeah, I know you and Faye adored the first book but with this one she was just so indecisive. I'm like you're on a mission to save Amon for god's sake, make up your mind! It was pretty annoying. A shame when a series turns out like that, especially when the debut was more enjoyable!

Ick. The ickiest Egyptian god I've ever heard. Lol. I wasn't a fan of her debut series, so I wasn't interested in this one. It sounds like same old, same old from the look of things. That series has an irresistible heroine as well. And yes, it was a cheesefest.
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Yeah, I prefer Amon miles over that one, even though Amon was a lot more cheesy lol. The lion merge actually made me wonder if that was in the original series.

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Jeann

Jeann is an Aussie blogger, gamer, reader who loves to read, write, fangirl, geek out and eat food. You can find me glued to one of my many mobile devices 24/7, or fangirling over the latest YA book, TV show, movie or game.

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Jenna

Jenna is an Aussie blogger and reader who loves to indulge in great books and great food. You can usually find me binge reading series, fangirling with fellow readers, devouring pastries, or watching trivia game shows like The Chase Australia.